Posted by JoeS on February 07, 2003 at 11:47:40:
In Reply to: Is this even a remote possibility? posted by Jeff Hicks on February 07, 2003 at 11:11:23:
King (calling a spade a spade, I guess) already has a pretty-good-sounding euphonium body (bell & bows) paired with a 4V NON-comp valveset. They should be able to start with this "frame" and pair it with an upgrade valveset if they are able to make it a priority. It would kinda be neat, I guess, to have a comp eupho made in the U.S.
As to the front-action thing...yeah, its clearly a better design, but there are quite a few folks that heavily focus in on the appearance of things rather than the function... ' still others who don't trust their pinky (which to me is puzzling).
My personal favorite was the old Yamaha 321 5th dependent rotor system. I liked it a lot BECAUSE the "compensating" part (5th rotor insert) ONLY had to be "fooled with" when it was needed (rather than constantly having to push overly-long overly-heavy pistons up and down ALL the time IN ADDITION TO awkward #4 valve placement and convoluted "wrap" of the 4th valve tubing [BACK through the valves] just for the benefit for the 1/10 of 1% of playing - when a low Eb or low D is called for -- ALL OF WHICH are the case with the "classic" 3+1 comp set-up.)